


We Can Make the World Stop

by ExpressAndAdmirable



Series: The Heroes of Light [46]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Final Fantasy I
Genre: Dwarven Hamhoonery, Gen, Poker Nights, Slice of Life, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Tiefling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 14:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13273200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExpressAndAdmirable/pseuds/ExpressAndAdmirable
Summary: The Heroes of Light discover the one thing they can all do together is play poker. It quickly goes awry.





	We Can Make the World Stop

It had started innocently enough. Given that moments of privacy on their journey were few and far between, Lux decided to make peace with her companions’ close proximity and find activities they could all do together. If they were fated to be constantly in each other’s business, she reasoned, they might as well find ways to make it enjoyable. Part of her even hoped a group hobby might bring them closer, allow them to work out some of the tensions that occasionally cropped up between them. She lived ever in hope.

At first, the search proved difficult. Meditation was by necessity a solitary act, chess was designed for two, sparring and dancing happened in pairs or small groups, and tea parties only interested a few. The one thing everyone _did_ know, she discovered, was how to play poker.

On the third night of one of their longer voyages, around the heavy table in the Platinum Dawn’s galley, they gathered. Lux provided the cards; party coin was swiftly declared off-limits, for everyone’s well-being, and Sol produced the pouch of shells and sea glass she and Lux usually used as chips. The Drow dealt, and they began.

The game that night was the first of many, and as the cards and chips skittered across the table, the Heroes of Light learned much of their companions.

Sporting tiny spectacles to allow him to properly see the cards, Grummer was, perhaps, the most “average” when it came to poker. He won on occasion and lost more frequently, but neither outcome ruffled him overmuch. More than the game itself, he enjoyed spending time with his sworn allies, finding it akin to gathering around the campfires in his mercenary days. Sometimes his mind wandered, wrapped up in memory; when he snapped back to reality, he invariably bet too high and bluffed too hard and folded shortly after.

Lux was no expert, but she had been learning from her time spent playing against her Drow, and with every hand her skills improved. Preferring to fold gracefully rather than bluff her way to victory, she spent much of her time analysing her friends, learning their tells and calling their bluffs. Had she taken to the game years ago she might have become an unbeatable player, but the people at the table knew how to read the truth of her, and she knew when she had been well and truly bested.

As was often the case in his life, Wilhelm continually allowed his cockiness to get the better of him. The game was a chance for his shell of awkward professor to crack, revealing the flamboyant, exciteable socialite they all knew lay within. It was no secret when his hand was strong, as his bets instantly soared, accompanied by a tellingly self-satisfied smirk that was swiftly and decisively called. When he did manage to win, he surprised even himself.

Morgan, honest to a fault even in a game of deception, nearly always lost. During the first night she caught herself accidentally counting cards; while she could have used it to her advantage, she immediately admitted it to her friends and changed her style of play to assuage the guilt. She believed almost every bluff, conceding with little provocation, and even when her cards were strong, her myriad tells revealed her hand long before she lay it on the table. It never saddened her to lose, however; as long as everyone showed each other kindness and gave in to laughter, she was content.

A stone-faced soldier with centuries of experience, Sol quickly proved herself the master player. It was often difficult to tell how seriously she took the game, until her stoic expression curved into a smirk and she shot a dry comeback across the table. Her tells were few and her bets steady, and her pile of shells grew higher and higher as each game progressed. After a significant look and a psychic suggestion from her Tiefling, she eased her desire for victory in favour of giving each of the others a chance to shine – every once in awhile, at least.

Maergrahn, it seemed, was absolutely dedicated to being the wild card. His bets were bizarre and his bluffs hard to call, and whenever he lost, he made up a new rule to explain how he had actually won. Wearing one shoe meant it was an Opposite Hand Game and his two pair was the victor. A trio of eights was dubbed a Royal Fizbin and was the kingmaker of hands. In the beginning, Morgan accepted his claims without question; once she realised she had been had, she spent her games watching him over her cards with narrowed eyes. He whistled innocently and continued to invent.

When they played in the galley, they were often joined by Osaid the Sage and Bikke Blackhand, allies in their quest and members of their crew. Feldon was needed topside to steer the ship, which he did not mind; he had little interest in games fuelled by lying and deception. Sending Bikke to play in his place had, in fact, been his idea, and the marid was beyond thrilled to be included in the pastime. The polar opposite of Wilhelm, Bikke thrived on the excitement of betting a weak hand, challenging as often as he could and repeatedly pushing all the way to a call. He never won. Osaid, by comparison, gave even Sol a run for her money, jovially and long-windedly bluffing his way into many a victory.

With each passing game, Maergrahn’s list of rules became longer and more convoluted. Some rules were modified situationally and some were abandoned altogether in favour of even stranger stipulations. While no-one but him officially followed them, his absolute devotion made them difficult to ignore. Sol casually followed them on the occasions they benefitted her, raising more than a few eyebrows, and she reminded the players rather testily that her paladinic vows were vastly different than Feldon’s. Not to be outdone, Wilhelm began to use as many as he could remember and contributed new ones when he forgot. Morgan and Grummer, confused and aggravated respectively, tried valiantly to continue playing unmodified poker. Lux merely shook her head.

By the time they reached land, the games were becoming hopelessly intricate. Tucked within the safety of their magical dome, each evening included at least one post-dinner hand, and each hand made less sense than the last. Far from the long glances and subtle cues of standard poker, Mutant Poker was a raucous affair involving wild hand gestures, staring contests, card tricks and threats of competitive dance to settle disputes. Lux was not even entirely sure what they were playing could still rightly be called poker, but her friends were (mostly) laughing, and that was enough. The game was less important.

Upon their return to the Platinum Dawn, Maergrahn proudly declared he had taken his rules and invented his own, separate card game. Dubious but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, the others agreed to play. If Mutant Poker was confusing, Dwarven Hamhoonery was a pure, unadulterated hallucination.

Sol was the first to realise Maergrahn was making the rules up as he went along. Rather than pointing it out, she began to do the same, inventing a series of rules that only applied to those over two hundred years old or to Lord Generals. In response, Lux dubbed each person a General of something-or-other, which Sol accepted as valid because Lux was clearly the Queen. By the third game, there were no longer cards involved. By the fourth, it more closely resembled charades than anything even remotely involving strategy. By the fifth, General Grummer of the Scarab nearly overturned the galley’s heavy table, roaring that what had once been a game had turned to nothing but yelling and manic flailing. Hopping nimbly onto the table (much to Queen Lux’s horror), General Maergrahn of the Fancy Feet crowned Grummer the Ultimate Supreme Champion Hamhooner and announced that the tournament had concluded for the evening.

The next night, they returned to poker.

Watching the darkening sky from the stern of the ship, Lux had to laugh. Even as the Heroes of Light endeavoured to break the grand cycle, they had created new, smaller ones that were all their own. Maergrahn would never stop inventing rules, Sol and Wilhelm would never stop attempting to memorise and use them, Morgan and Grummer would never stop protesting, and the rounds of classic poker would mutate and deteriorate into anarchy once again. Of all the loops they were fated to be stuck in, she had not expected a card game to be one of them.

It had worked, though, she mused. They argued and they fumed and they pointed fingers and very nearly flipped tables, but not one person had abandoned the game. They were finally coming together, six disparate people learning slowly to coexist. They were more than friends. They were becoming family.

A gentle hand at the small of her back. The game’s about to begin, Sol informed her. Was she coming? Lux nodded and smiled. Just a minute to finish her cigarette. She wouldn’t miss game time for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Title song by the Glitch Mob.
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr at @expressandadmirable for a proper table of contents for the Heroes campaign, commissioned character art, text-based roleplay snippets and more!


End file.
